https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-struggles-explain-why-he-disbanded-his-global-health-team-n1153221
"It's worth emphasizing that this is Trump's second explanation related to his decision to disband his global health security team. "I'm a business person," he explained two weeks ago in response to a similar question. "I don't like having thousands of people around when you don't need them. When we need them, we can get them back very quickly." As it turns out, the administration cannot actually reassemble such a team "very quickly," though Trump, still unfamiliar with how much of the executive branch works, may not have known that. It set the stage for this new argument: Trump dissolved the White House's pandemic team because he had no idea he might need a pandemic team. Except, that's not an especially satisfying answer. The whole point of having a team focused on epidemiological threats is (a) viral outbreaks can happen; (b) one never knows when they'll happen; and (c) countries want to be prepared when they do happen. According to the president, "you can never really think is going to happen," but the National Security Council's team existed precisely because officials recognized the possible hazard. Indeed, as the New York Times noted overnight that President Barack Obama established the Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense at the National Security Council after the 2014 Ebola outbreak, making clear that some folks were acutely aware of possibilities like these. It's as if the president is unfamiliar with the idea of insurance on a conceptual level."
